Does fan leaves at the end of veg contain anything good for BHO?
I’m not really sure of the answer to your question, but I would advise against purposely removing fan leaves. They’re collecting the energy to drive photosynthesis, which you’ll want as much as possible going into flowering stage. Outside of clearing out underneath a dense canopy, you’ll want them.
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In my experience, the plant does a fine job of picking which fans to sacrifice, and when. Near the end it becomes obvious. When a fan turns yellow and starts to dry up, it will fall off by itself or you can be obsessive and pluck them off. Pull up on the fan and it will pop right off. If it doesn’t, leave it for another day when it will.
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@Donaldj does bho extraction and @Hogmaster also used to do bho
I would direct any BHO questions towards them myself
I would say if there are tricombes on them ( fan leaves ) its usable and if not
its just taking up space in your blow down cylinder
But you wont have many fan leaves left if you grow your crop right since the plant will shed most of the fan leaves before harvest
The sugar leaves are definitely usable in the process @cook7200
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I own a closed loop extractor so I can actually run entire plant but stick to sugar leaves airy buds popcorn fan leafs were staple for oil years ago. Butane is a solvent and rinses waxes oils and triches off plant matter much like Iso or everclear it’s only advantage is it is cold and evaporates boils off at lower temps. Open air extractors work by forcing solvent butane to flush over plant matter in a column or tube through a screen and as implied onto tray or platter in open air (not indoors) the butane starts to boil off as fast as it hits open air or warm surface leaving behind oils and wax. Closed loop the butane can soak material before running through screen into a sealed splatter pan which is super cooled with dry ice keeping butane liquid until you are ready to recover it using a second vessel which again is super cooled and vaccumed to neg pressure. The splatter pan is then connected via pressure line to recovery tank and slowly temp is raised turning the liquid to gas which runs from the heat towards the super cooled recovery vessel leaving behind you guessed it oil wax 
This method has several advantages such as the fact butane is recovered at well over 90% if done right the gas is not in air so reduced risk of fire or explosions a single can of butane can rinse ounces so far less waste the rinse can be more thorough with less butane. Meaning even lower grade leaf and shake can be used second column can be added after first with coarse filter filled with bearings super cooled to collect and separate wax before finer filter into catch vessel.
They are expensive to buy and take lots of homework to operate but if you prefer shatter or grow enough they are worth the long term savings and added value from recovered shake. far less time consuming than traditional oil making methods
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The reason I’m considering removing fan leaves is the new growth in the middle of the plant is dying due to no light. This is my first try at full season plants and I’m not complaining about the fine looking bush that’s grown I just hate to see loss potential in a node. It’s growing everywhere and I love it. Wish I could speed up the process, but like a good bourbon it’s ready when it’s ready.
And this whole time I thought I was doing something wrong when the fan leaves turned yellow. Cutting them off was like a funeral. Donaldj post was awesome. I feel like I just left class. Thanks.
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What a post, thanks. Can a closed loop be built with common hardware store items or is it a system that need to be bought like a co2 extractor?
Butane extraction is illegal in California because so many people have blown up their houses! Ethanol is MUCH safer and legal here. You can do essentially the same thing and recover the used ethanol to use again. The big difference is you have to apply heat to get the ethanol to evaporate, hopefully not with an open flame. Use electric heat and regular ice, no pressure vessels needed.
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Exactly why I use closed loop extractor it is lab grade equipment not home made @cook7200 and not something you rig together from hardware store require AC recovery vaccum pressure rated SS columns and tanks.
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Thank you both @1BigFella and @Donaldj
@cook7200 this is a process you want to research plenty before you try it as the boys have stated it can be very dangerous
Reminded me I have some shake to run today
Not to go off topic too much, but leaves don’t die from lack of light. Leaves get chlorosis because they lack proper nutrition to maintain replacement of chlorophyll pigment as this pigment decays.
Anytime a photon (light) make contact with a leaf, decay of the chlorophyll pigments happens. This decay is a good thing because it means that the leaf is manufacturing photosynthate (plant food) to pass to other areas of the plant based on higher “sink strengths”.
The inner leaves are not growing anymore and yellowing, because they lack “sink strength”. This just means that the plant has determined more important areas of the plant to sent it to. “Sink strength” is the plants way of determining where to send it’s available nutrients. Since there isnt any nutrients being sent to the inner leaves, chlorosis occurs, cell structure suffers, and eventually the leaf drops off.
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